Egan: Video reveals smash-and-grab failure of pink-hoodied thief

The Econo gas bar is a little four-pumper, on a corner lot at Holland Avenue and Tyndall Street, with a small boxy store — inside which, as they say, you couldn’t swing a cat.

Customers love the full-service. If only thieves would stop trying to fill up after hours.

For the fourth time in about a year, the Econo was the scene of a break-and-enter early Monday, the whole thing captured on security cameras at about 2 a.m., the dramatic images shared with the Citizen.

Lok Vanaik, 64, who owns the business with his wife, Naresh, 55, is running out of security measures to add.

There are bars on the front door, bars on the window, a locked steel curtain that protects the cigarette stand, a thick metal bar across the exterior bathroom door, interior and exterior security cameras, an alarm system, a hidden safe. (And, for the love of God, the place has nothing more than smokes, pop and snack food. There is no stash of gold bars.)

But it didn’t stop the guy in the pink hoodie. The footage shows a man kicking in the window-style air conditioner, crawling through the resulting hole, hopping over the counter and attempting to crack open the cash register.

Meanwhile, alarms are going off, so our B&E artist is working with some haste, finally flinging the register against the window’s bars. All for naught, really. There was nothing in it. Too bad he wrecked the expensive device.

Screen grab from security video.

Screen grab from security video.

“Gas-station running is life-threatening right now,” said Naresh on Wednesday, the first day they reopened. She looked tired, admitting she hasn’t slept much this week, dreading another late-night phone call.

She seems like a sweetheart. Tears arrived when she told me about her boy, Rav, who died suddenly while playing soccer at Colonel By Secondary School in 2002. He was only 14. Ever since, she said, she’s been unable to work full-time at the business.

Meanwhile, as she wiped tears away and we swapped sad parenting stories, customers kept inquiring about her health and the aftermath of the robbery. “Our customers are very, very loyal to us,” she said.

The bandits, if nothing else, have been inventive.

Two broke open the bathroom door, cut through the drywall, squeezed through the new hole and proceeded to steal a pile of cigarettes (as many as 70 cartons, at $100-plus each) from the main store. Lok estimates they’ve probably suffered $50,000 in losses and damage in the last year alone.

Things are slowly getting back to normal. A new steel door has been installed, the internet and debit machines are up and running and a new window is on the way to replace the temporary plywood. (A $4,000 repair job.)

They’d like to see more police patrols in the area. Naresh said they pay $2,000 a month in property taxes alone.

Well, Ottawa police were on the case, making an arrest later the same day. Stuart Cochrane, 30, is facing multiple charges related to nine break-and-enters between June 28 and July 10, mostly at commercial establishments in a short radius of the Carling and Holland intersection.

Police also say a stolen car was used in this week’s Econo job.

Staff Sgt. Mike Haarbosch read out 22 charges against Cochrane, including two counts of wearing a disguise and an assault charge.

“It’s a significant arrest in that we’ve cleared nine so far and the investigation is very much ongoing,” he said Thursday. Police will also check for any links to prior break-ins at the Econo, he added.

The Vanaiks, meanwhile, are looking at giving up the pumps and possibly converting the corner lot into rental housing. Who can blame them?

They came from India to operate a successful small business — they have five employees — and build a life. Now their little retail/gas cabin looks a like a prison cell, with bars and locks galore, and enough worry to cause sleepless nights.

As my pal Stan used to say: the bastards, really, they’d steal Jesus off the cross.

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